11. Not far from Castlon is the mountain in which they report that the [river] Guadalquiver1084 takes its rise. They call it silver mountain on account of the silver mines which it contains.1085 Polybius asserts that both the Guadiana1086 and this river have their sources in Keltiberia, notwithstanding they are separated from each other by a distance of 900 stadia;1087 [this we are to attribute to] the Keltiberians having increased in power, and having consequently conferred their name on the surrounding country. It appears the ancients knew the Guadalquiver under the name of the Tartessus, and Gades1088 with the neighbouring islands under that of Erythia; and it is thought that we should understand in this sense the words of Stesichorus1089 concerning the pastoral poet Geryon, that he was born “almost opposite to the renowned Erythia, in a rocky cave near to the abundant springs of the silver-bedded river Tartessus.” They say that on the piece of land enclosed between the two outlets of this river there formerly stood a city named, like the river, Tartessus, and that the district was called Tartessis, which the Turduli now inhabit. Eratosthenes likewise tells us that the [country] near to Calpe1090 was called Tartessis, and also Erythia the Fortunate Island. This Artemidorus contradicts, and says that it is as false as his other statements, that the Sacred Promontory1091 is distant from Gades1092 five days’ sail, when in fact they are [distant from each other] not more than 1700 stadia.1093 Likewise that the tide ceased at this point, whereas it passes round the whole circuit of the habitable earth. That it is easier to pass from the northern parts of Iberia into Keltica,1094 than to proceed thither by sea; with many other things which he asserted on the faith of that charlatan Pytheas.
12. Our poet [Homer] being very explicit, and possessing great experience, gives one cause to believe that he was not unfamiliar with these localities. Of this any one may be convinced who will examine carefully what has been written on these points, both the incorrect [comments], and likewise those which are better and more truthful. One amongst these incorrect ideas is, that he considered [Tartessis] to be the farthest country towards the west, where, as he himself expresses it,
The radiant sun in ocean sank,
Drawing night after him o’er all the earth.1095
Now, since it is evident that night is ominous, and near to Hades, and Hades to Tartarus, it seems probable that [Homer], having heard of Tartessus, took thence the name of Tartarus to distinguish the farthest of the places beneath the earth, also embellishing it with fable in virtue of the poetic licence. In the same way, knowing that the Cimmerians dwelt in northern and dismal territories near to the Bosphorus, he located them [Pg 224]
[CAS. 149] in the vicinity of Hades; perhaps also on account of the common hatred of the Ionians against this people. For they say that in the time of Homer, or a little before, the Cimmerians made an incursion as far as Æolia and Ionia. Always drawing his fables from certain real facts, his Planetæ1096 are modelled on the Cyaneæ. He describes them as dangerous rocks, as they tell us the Cyaneæan rocks are, [and] on which account [in fact] they are called Symplegades.1097 He adds to this [the account of] Jason’s navigating through the midst of them. The Straits of the Pillars1098 and Sicily,1099 likewise, suggested to him the fable of the Planetæ. Thus, even according to the worst comments, from the fiction of Tartarus any one might gather that Homer was acquainted with the regions about Tartessus.
13. Of these facts, notwithstanding, there are better proofs. For instance, the expeditions of Hercules and the Phœnicians to this country were evidence to him of the wealth and luxury of the people. They fell so entirely under the dominion of the Phœnicians, that at the present day almost the whole of the cities of Turdetania and the neighbouring places are inhabited by them. It also seems to me that the expedition of Ulysses hither, as it took place and was recorded, was the foundation both of his Odyssey and Iliad, which he framed upon facts collected into a poem, and embellished as usual with poetical mythology. It is not only in Italy, Sicily, and a few other places that vestiges of these [events] occur; even in Iberia a city is shown named Ulyssea,1100 also a temple of Minerva, and a myriad other traces both of the wandering of Ulysses and also of other survivors of the Trojan war, which was equally fatal to the vanquished and those who took Troy. These latter in fact gained a Cadmean victory,1101 for their homes were destroyed, and the portion of booty which fell to each was exceedingly minute. Consequently not only those who had survived the perils [of their country], but the Greeks as well, betook themselves to piracy, the former because they had been pillaged of every thing; the latter, on account of the shame which each one anticipated to himself:
“The shame
That must attend us, after absence long
Returning unsuccessful, who can bear?”1102
In the same way is related the wandering of Æneas, of Antenor, and of the Heneti; likewise of Diomedes, of Menelaus, of Ulysses,1103 and of many others. Hence the poet, knowing of similar expeditions to the extremities of Iberia, and having heard of its wealth and other excellencies, (which the Phœnicians had made known,) feigned this to be the region of the Blessed, and the Plain of Elysium, where Proteus informs Menelaus that he is to depart to:
“But far hence the gods
Will send thee to Elysium, and the earth’s
Extremest bounds; there Rhadamanthus dwells,
The golden-haired, and there the human kind
Enjoy the easiest life; no snow is there,
No biting winter, and no drenching shower,
But zephyr always gently from the sea
Breathes on them to refresh the happy race.”1104
Now the purity of the air, and the gentle breathing of the zephyr, are both applicable to this country, as well as the softness of the climate, its position in the west, and its place at the extremities of the earth, where, as we have said, he feigned that Hades was. By coupling Rhadamanthus with it, he signifies that the place was near to Minos, of whom he says,
“There saw I Minos, offspring famed of Jove;
His golden sceptre in his hand, he sat
Judge of the dead.”1105
Similar to these are the fables related by later poets; such, for instance, as the expeditions after the oxen of Geryon, and the [Pg 226]
[CAS. 150] golden apples of the Hesperides, the Islands of the Blessed1106 they speak of, which we know are still pointed out to us not far distant from the extremities of Maurusia, and opposite to Gades.
14. I repeat that the Phœnicians were the discoverers [of these countries], for they possessed the better part of Iberia and Libya before the time of Homer, and continued masters of those places until their empire was overthrown by the Romans. This also is an evidence of the wealth of Iberia: in the expedition of the Carthaginians under Barcas,1107 they found, according to historians, that the people of Turdetania used silver goblets1108 and casks. One might guess too that it was on account of this great opulence that the men of the country, and their chiefs in particular, were styled long-lived. Wherefore Anacreon thus sings,
“Neither would I desire the horn of Amalthea, nor to reign over Tartessus one hundred and fifty years.”
Herodotus too has preserved the name of the king, whom he calls Arganthonius.1109 The passage of Anacreon must therefore either be understood [of this king], or some other like him; or else more generally thus, “nor to reign for a lengthened period in Tartessus.” Some writers1110 are of opinion that Tartessus is the present Carteia.
15.